The two organizations sent out a survey Monday to find out. It’s the third year in a row for the survey, which was created by the Southern Colorado Economic Forum at UCCS.

“The survey results have been similar to what you get on a national level,” said Tom Zwirlein, director of the Southern Colorado Economic Forum. “I think that gives some credence to them.”

The survey, which can be found here, asks how much shoppers plan to spend this year, and if it’s more or less than they spent last year. It also asks about changes in economic situations, such as employment, raises, demotions, job loss and taxes.

The online survey, which takes about three minutes to complete, also questions survey-takers about their feeling regarding the economy – if they’re optimistic or more concerned than they were last year.

The survey goes out to business school contacts, those signed up for information about the economic forum and those on BiggsKofford’s contact lists.

“It’s pretty non-scientific,” Zwirlein said. “It just goes out to whoever is on our lists. There’s definitely a bias. I mean, we’re not going to capture the unemployed.”

But he said that the survey’s typical return of 200 respondents gives some good baseline data and some jumping-off points that point to greater trends.

He expects preliminary survey results to come in within the next month and will present some of the survey findings at the economic forum next month.

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